709 COVID cases tallied at Penn State
Results from surveillance testing this week indicated one positive out of 514 tests, according to Pitt officials.
“The take- home message here is that although surveillance testing numbers remain very low, which is encouraging and suggests most people are following the health rules, campus cases remain steadily elevated,” read a statement from Pitt’s medical response office. “This means that we need to remain vigilant. We still need to flatten the curve.”
About 29,000 of Pitt’s 34,000 students are on its main Oakland campus.
At Penn State, the latest results are for the week of Sept. 4 through Thursday, and a number of test results for that period are still pending, officials said. A week ago, total cases universitywide stood at 215, which was almost three times the number from the week before.
The University Park results this week showed 260 positive results from on- demand or symptomatic testing, and 28 positive results from random or asymptomatic testing, among the student population.
Random screening of employees has returned one positive result for University Park.
Results still pending can take up to 48 hours and will be included in the dashboard update on Tuesday, officials said. Nearly 50,000 students attend Penn State’s main University Park campus.
The 215 cases as of last Friday were based on 9,948 tests.
The latest universitywide total of 708 students plus one employee is based on about 17,200 tests since Aug. 7
“At this time, we do not need to change our current modality and hybrid on- campus approach,” Penn State President Eric Barron said in a statement Friday.
“The university is monitoring the number of positive and negative cases — and other variables critical to our decision- making — including isolation and quarantine capacity, hospitalizations, locational data, transmission from student cases to employees and community prevalence, to name a few.
“Mitigations in our armamentarium include pausing in- person instruction and quarantining a specific program or unit, as we have done with nursing, for example.” he added.
Earlier, officials set aside 400 singles in Eastview Terrace buildings for isolation space.
“At this time, the isolation and quarantine space at University Park is at about 50% capacity,” said Kelly Wolgast, director of the COVID- 19 Operations Control Center. “As students complete their isolation period and those quarantining receive negative results, they leave the isolation and quarantine space.
“Prior to Aug. 30, 97 individuals have recovered and are moving out of the space on campus, and more students are expected to be released in the coming days. In addition, the university has the capacity to open more isolation and quarantine space.”